Tricks by Ellen Hopkins was a work of literary art. Each of the five characters changed throughout the story. Almost all of them fell into drug abuse, and they all ended up in Las Vegas. One of the characters, Whitney, always felt neglected by her mom compared to her perfect older sister. She ran away with her new boyfriend who was much older than her and didn't have her best interests in mind. Bryn, her boyfriend, introduced Whitney to drugs that she figured she wouldn't get addicted to, until she did. Heroin controlled her life as she prostituted herself to continue getting the drugs her body was hooked on. Bryn had many other "girlfriends" that he tricked into loving him, pressured into doing drugs, and completely used. Whitney's story ended bitter-sweetly. She had tried a new drug that someone had shown her, had a seizure and then blacked out. When she woke up she was in a rehab center with her mom, dad, and sister who had somehow found her. It was a happy resolution for someone who had had such a horrible life. This way she was on the road back to good health surrounded by her family.
Ellen Hopkins did a great job in writing Tricks. Just when you thought there was no hope for a character, there was somehow a resolution to their problem or bad habit. Each of the characters wound up in a safe environment, whether it was a rehab center or a church group. In her work, Hopkins showed how young people can start in a healthy situation, fall into dark place of substance abuse and promiscuity, then come back and turn their lives around. In this story their were evident human vs. self, human vs. another human, and human vs. society conflicts that were resolved in the end. Betrayal, depression, loneliness, and hopelessness were the overall moods the reader felt when reading Tricks. Ellen Hopkins has written a great page-turning novel that gets the reader completely involved as you hope something happens to help the young people in need.
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